Determine keywords
Once you have determined your research topic and sub-concepts, look for alternative terms for each sub-concept. Alternative keywords may include:
- Synonyms and perhaps antonyms;
- Jargon and lay terms;
- Translations: consider Dutch-English translations as well as Latin names.
- Spelling variations (for translations into English: remember that there are different spellings in British and American English);
- Abbreviations and hyphenated terms;
- Broader and narrower terms;
- Related terms ( e.g. 'evacuation' is a related term of 'natural disaster');
- Singular and plural
Watch out for homonyms, i.e. words with multiple meanings!
Next, list the keywords found, as in the example below:
| Built environment | Person with Intellectual Disabilities | Well-being |
| architecture | PIMD | Quality of Life |
| residential care facility | mentally challenged | QoL |
| residential care facilities | mentally disabled | Wellbeing |
| care home | mentally impaired | perceived quality of life |
| nursing home | Autism | … |
| ... | ... | ... |
Dictionaires and thesauri
- Britannica Academic This link opens in a new window
Britannica Academic Edition consists of the famous Encyclopaedia Britannica plus Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, magazines and periodicals, and many other research tools including a world atlas which provide a variety of reliable sources that are useful for conducting thorough collegiate research. - Oxford Language Dictionaries Online This link opens in a new window
Oxford Dictionaries English - German; German - English; English - Spanish; Spanish - English - Van Dale Online Dictionaries This link opens in a new window
Handbooks NL & ENG, translation dictionaries for NL to and from EN, DE, ES, FR, IT & SE. Also includes Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford Thesaurus of English, Oxford Hachette (FR-EN/EN-FR) and PONS (DE-FR/FR-DE).
Using a thesaurus, glossary or dictionary will help you come up with new keywords for your query in databases and on the Web. In a thesaurus you will find:
- Definitions of concepts
- Broader terms: more general concepts
- Narrower terms: more specific concepts
- Related concepts
- CESSDA - ELSSTThe European Language Social Science Thesaurus (ELSST) is a broad-based, multilingual thesaurus for the social sciences.
It is currently available in 16 languages: Danish, Dutch, Czech, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovenian, Spanish, and Swedish. - GEMET
GEneral Multilingual Environmental Thesaurus
Minilecture keywords
Useful links and resources
If you have questions, please contact the Information Specialist Research of your research center, or go to support & contact for more information and advice.